As corporations and consumers become more computerized, it is becoming common to scan paper documents to store and maintain electronic versions of the documents on computer systems. The scanning may include various document analysis and imaging techniques to accurately convert the text and imagery on the paper document into the electronic version of the same document. One example technique may include document binarization (also referred to as document thresholding).
Document binarization may be used as a tool to analyze document content for purposes of scanning, copying, and/or otherwise reproducing content in an electronic format. Document binarization may include converting content within a document into one or more binary image. The quality of the outputted document undergoing document binarization can vary based on computing software settings, hardware capability, and the initial quality of a document.
The task of binarization of images may include configuring several tuning parameters to be applied to particular portions of the document and/or imagery in the document. The tuning parameters can be modified by a user based on the state of a particular input image to improve one or more aspects of the image. Configuration of tuning parameters is typically performed through many trial and error selections and iterations of binarization steps.
The quality of such scanned images can vary based on the tuning factors and the complexity of the content in the document. There exists a need for a method and apparatus to improve the quality and speed of binarization of documents that are degraded without the delay and multiple binarization iterations.